


Engaged

by Marathon_Zack_140_6



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. RPF, British Actor RPF, Marvel Cinematic Universe RPF, Real Person Fiction, Scottish Actor RPF
Genre: F/M, RPF, caestridge - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 21,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27033997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marathon_Zack_140_6/pseuds/Marathon_Zack_140_6
Summary: Something's wrong with Iain, and Elizabeth's determined to find out what it is.
Relationships: Iain De Caestecker/Elizabeth Henstridge
Comments: 5
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

Iain just hadn’t been the same since they'd gotten back and started filming season seven, and Elizabeth was determined to find out why.

She’d given him a few weeks for things to sort themselves out on their own, or for him to come to her with whatever was bothering him, but they hadn’t, and he hadn’t. And she was done waiting. So that morning, she tracked him down to find out just what was going on with her best friend.

Iain was reading over his script alone in the lab set, which was completely vacant as they weren’t filming on it anytime soon, and out of the way of where everyone else was. And that was another thing she’d noticed about him since their return — that he was spending a lot more time alone, or at least not with her. And it bothered her. A lot.

He was sitting in Fitz's normal chair and table, script on the table and him bent over it, elbows on the table and head in his hands. Elizabeth walked over, and sat down on the table next to him.

“Iain, what’s the matter? You haven’t been the same since we got back.”

“It’s nothing,” replied Iain far too quickly, flipping over the page of his script, not looking up at her.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes — Iain had always been a stubborn one. Fortunately, she could be even more stubborn.

"Of course it's something, or I wouldn't have asked. So please, just tell me. You're my best friend, you can tell me anything."

Iain finally turned his head enough to look up at her. "Not this. You really don't want to know."

"Of course I want to know!" exclaimed Elizabeth, offended that he would think there could be anything going on in his life that she wouldn’t care about, no matter how insignificant he thought it might be.

"Elizabeth! I'm not telling you, okay!? So just — stop. Please."

Elizabeth froze, staring at him in shock. It was the first time she'd ever truly heard him snap at her, and it took her majorly by surprise. But fortunately for her, he'd turned back to staring at the table (she seriously doubted he even noticed his script he was staring through), so he didn't see her staring at him.

"Okay. And sorry, Iain," she said softly after several seconds, deciding it was best to drop it at the moment — but she was definitely going to pin him down and get to the bottom of whatever this was soon, just at a better time.

"It's fine," mumbled Iain, flipping his script to the front page. "And sorry for snapping."

Then he stood up and looked over at her for real for the first time since she'd come in, picking his script up off the table. "We should probably get back near set. We have to film soon."

Elizabeth jumped off the table and smiled at him, looping her arm loosely around his, happy when he didn't pull away from her, and together they walked back towards where they would soon be needed for filming.

~AoS~

The following evening, after filming was wrapped up for the episode and they had the following day off before read-throughs on the next episode the day after that, Elizabeth walked up to the door of Iain's apartment and knocked.

As soon as he opened the door, before he even had time to say hi or ask what she was doing there, she said as she pushed her way past him into his apartment, “I’m here to make you tell me what you wouldn’t tell me yesterday morning."

Then she proceeded to walk over to his kitchen table and pull out a chair and sit down, before turning to face him, a determined look on her face that brooked no argument. Iain was still standing at the door holding it open, staring at her. Realizing she had no plans of going anywhere anytime soon, he slowly closed the door and walked over to the table, taking the chair on the far opposite side, putting as much space between them as there could be had at the small, rectangular table.

“Lil, I told you — it's nothing. I've just been a little off, but I'm fine."

"And we both know you’re lying. Which is why I'm here now, when you can't make up any excuses about filming tomorrow to kick me out," replied Elizabeth crisply, folding her hands together and looking at him expectantly.

After glaring at her for a second, Iain said firmly, “You don’t want to know — _seriously_."

"So you've said. But when have I ever not wanted to know something from you?” countered Elizabeth.

“I know, Lil. But please — this is the one exception. And you know I never keep anything from you,” begged Iain.

“Exactly! Which is why you not being willing to tell me makes no sense, and why I absolutely _have_ to know now,” insisted Elizabeth.

“That’s _really_ not how this works,” muttered Iain.

“Iain, please! Just tell me!” cried Elizabeth. "You know I would never judge you for anything, and it can’t be that bad! I mean, you’ve never had any problem telling me about the few times you’ve gotten in actual trouble."

“This isn't because I did something wrong, Lil! That’s not why I won’t tell you, I promise. This just isn’t something I _can_ tell you."

“But there’s something wrong, and it’s messing with us, and it hasn’t gotten any better on its own for weeks now!” cried Elizabeth, starting to actually get a little upset with her best friend, that he wasn’t even trying to meet her halfway here. “You can have things you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine, but not when it’s affecting _us_!”

“Yeah, well, you’re just going to have to accept not knowing everything this time,” insisted Iain, a hard edge to his voice. “Because I’m not telling you, ever.”

“Iain De Caestecker! If you think I'm going to accept our friendship being hurt just because _you’ve_ got something you won’t tell me anything about, you are sorely mistaken! You mean _way_ too much to me to let your stubbornness hurt our friendship like this!”

“Like you’re not being stubborn yourself!” Iain shouted back.

“ _I’m_ just trying to fix our friendship that _you’ve_ messed up!” yelled Elizabeth, starting to get seriously irritated with her costar and best friend. “Anyway, we both know you’re eventually going to give in and tell me, so just tell me whatever it is that's wrong already!”

"No!" shouted Iain, his fist slamming down on the table.

But before he could go on, Elizabeth shouted back angrily, “Why won’t you just tell me, for God’s sake?!”

“Because it has to do with _you_!” blurted out Iain, what he’d been trying so hard to keep hidden from Elizabeth finally escaping.

“Of course it has to do with me, or you would have just told me already! And that’s exactly why I demand to know!” exclaimed Elizabeth, throwing her hands up in the air in exasperation. It hadn’t taken her long into their back and forth to come to the conclusion that it must have something to do with her, because he was never this stubborn on things in his own life.

But Iain wasn't rising to the bait, and dropped into a sullen silence, glaring at her.

Elizabeth glared back for several minutes, before finally crossing her arms and leaning back in her chair and saying defiantly, “I’ll stay here all night until you tell me, if I have to. We have nothing tomorrow, and I've slept on your couch before.”

"You were drunk and refused to take my bed unless I was in it too, which there was no way I was going to do with you having a boyfriend at the time, and there was absolutely no way in hell I was letting you try to get home in your state," grumbled Iain, but he quickly silenced back up when it got no reaction from Elizabeth other than her continuing to stare him down hard demanding an answer.

After several more minutes of silence and stony glares, Iain’s resolve finally broke, his inability to deny Elizabeth anything winning out, and he muttered dully, "You're going to hate me."

"Starting to already," replied Elizabeth flatly. She didn’t actually mean it — she could never hate him and they both knew it — but she wasn’t feeling particularly gracious at the moment.

Iain let out a defeated sigh, before screwing his eyes shut and pinching the bridge of his nose tightly, and mumbled at the table, “I like you.”

Elizabeth looked at him in confusion for a long second, even though she knew he couldn't see her. When he didn’t add anything more, she finally said, “I thought you’d always liked me. I mean, we say we're best friends and all. And anyway, how is that a bad thing, and something you did everything you could not to tell me?”

“No — I _like_ you,” repeated Iain, head still buried in his hand.

It still took Elizabeth another few seconds to get what he was saying.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” replied Iain dully, dropping his head to the table with a thud.

“I’m engaged. To my fiancé.”

She said it as a simple fact, neither accusatory nor even reminding, simply like saying two plus two equaled four or Simmons was Fitz’s everything, the first star in his sky — a fact that was simply there.

“I know.”

They were both silent for a long time, before Elizabeth asked, “When?”

“Over break. After you texted me that you’d gotten engaged,” replied Iain slightly muffled, not lifting his head up from the table. “I mean, I think it’s been a lot longer than that, that’s just when I finally realized it.” Finally lifting his head to look up at her, he said earnestly, “And I’m sorry. This is why I was trying not to have to tell you. I know it’s wrong, and I’m trying to be happy for you — I _am_ happy for you — but apparently I couldn’t quite keep my feelings completely inside, as you noticed anyway. And now I’ve ruined our friendship forever,” he finished dejectedly, dropping his head back into his hands on the table.

Elizabeth stared at him for a long time. But finally, the last part of what he said, about ruining their friendship, filtered its way into her brain, and she quickly stood up and moved to the seat next to his.

When he heard her chair moving, Iain just knew she was leaving, unable to be around him a minute longer, and things were now going to become even more awkward between them on set than they had already been, until a second later he felt her comforting hand on his back, and her soft but firm voice saying, “You have _not_ ruined our friendship, Iain De Caestecker. I don’t know where we go from here yet, but our friendship _will_ get through this — you haven’t lost me, and you never will.”

Iain turned his head sideways so he could just barely see her. “ _How?_ How can you still be friends with me after I’ve told you that I like you?”

Elizabeth took a deep breath, trying to figure out just how much to say, before deciding to plunge all the way in — there really was nothing left to lose.

“Because I’ve liked you for a long time. I just never thought you saw me that way. You did used to always say we were like brother and sister — that it was awkward to kiss me.”

“Because that’s what you say to the press!" exclaimed Iain, jerking upright. "You don’t say, ‘yeah, I absolutely love kissing my coworker. Best part of my day and I wish the writers would give us more intimate scenes’! That’s how rumors get started! And anyway, in my defense, I didn’t realize I had feelings for you until you were off the market for real, even if our kisses had certainly never felt like kissing a sister probably would. Sure, I never liked when you had a boyfriend, but I just thought that’s how someone who cared about you and wanted to make sure you were really happy felt. I didn’t realize it was at least in part because I really _did_ care for you in _that_ way, even all the way back then.”

Elizabeth rubbed his arm lightly from where it’d slid from his back when he'd sat up suddenly, as she tried to figure out what the hell she was supposed to do now. She couldn’t just break up with her fiancé because her best friend she’d liked for years realized he liked her back. But on the other hand, she couldn’t ignore the possibility that she and Iain really could have something — she really had liked him for years after all, and if they weren’t coworkers she probably would have asked him out at some point even though he hadn’t seemed to show that kind of interest in her. But since she knew they had to keep working together for several more years, she had known better than to risk making things awkward between them and then still have to act with him every day, so she never had.

Iain, meanwhile, just sat there slumped down in his chair, staring unseeing at the table. But eventually he broke the silence with the question that had been floating around in the back of both of their minds for at least a few minutes, but neither had been willing to voice. “Now what?”

Elizabeth sighed. “I don’t know.”

After another long silence, she finally continued, “On set, we obviously have to try to act like nothing is wrong or awkward between us, which includes all of our scenes _together_. Off set…well, I’ll be a total mess while I try to figure out what the hell to do, that hopefully won’t hurt both of the guys I care about, since there’s certainly no way out of this without hurting at least one of you.” She sighed again, shaking her head sadly. “When did my life become so like Simmons'? Except she already knew who she would always pick in the end if she had the choice, and I don’t have that luxury.”

“What? No! You can’t break up with your future husband for me! No! Now I really shouldn’t have told you any of this if that thought’s crossing your mind!” exclaimed Iain, head whipping over to stare at her in disbelief.

“In case you forgot, I literally had to pry it out of you, worse than pulling teeth,” replied Elizabeth, rolling her eyes at her best friend. “Anyway, it’s my life, my decision, not yours.”

“Yeah, except it kind of _is_ my life, since I’m the one you’d be leaving him for!” exclaimed Iain.

“Are you threatening that you wouldn’t date me if I left him?” asked Elizabeth pointedly with a raised eyebrow, calling his bluff he technically hadn’t made yet.

Iain deflated, letting out a long breath and mumbling, “No.”

“Didn’t think so,” replied Elizabeth crisply. “Which makes it entirely my decision.”

“I’d feel really guilty about it, though,” said Iain defensively, trying to pretend he had any control in the situation. “And that might make things between us less likely to work out.”

“Guilty enough not to still want it to work out?” asked Elizabeth, challenging him again.

Iain just kind of growled, refusing to say anything, giving Elizabeth all the answer she needed.

“Thought so.”

“So now that we’ve determined I’m a complete scumbag and have no problem trying to steal you away from your fiancé, what the bloody hell now?” grumbled Iain.

Elizabeth slapped him lightly on the arm for insulting himself like that. “If anyone’s a scumbag, it’s _me_ , for even thinking about leaving my fiancé. I mean, last time I checked, you didn’t come to me telling me I should break up with him and start dating you instead.”

“Yeah, but I’m not _discouraging_ it,” grumbled Iain in reply.

“Pretty sure you kind of were,” replied Elizabeth with another roll of her eyes, before continuing on before he could retort anything, “But we are not discussing this. Now or ever. So as for what we’re going to do, like I said before it’s my decision not yours, so for the moment we’re watching telly on your couch."

And with that she stood up and strode over to his couch, plopping down gracefully in the way only girls can, grabbing the remote up off the coffee table and looking over at him expectantly. So after a second Iain pushed himself up from his chair with a groan, and went and plopped down much less gracefully next to her. Elizabeth flipped the telly on, finding the replay of the most recent Man U match, and snuggled into his side, forcing him to lift his arm up and wrap it around her shoulder. To anyone who didn't know them and had only heard their recent conversation, this might have seemed rather intimate for someone who was already engaged and trying to figure out what she was doing, but in reality they'd watched tv together like this dozens if not hundreds of times over the previous six years they'd filmed together, and neither of them thought twice about it even with their recent talk.

By the time the match ended ninety minutes later, Elizabeth had fallen asleep curled into his side. So Iain gently shook her awake, so she could head home before it got any later.

"Hey, Lil…it's getting kind of late,” he said softly as she looked up at him in sleepy confusion.

"Oh, sorry," mumbled Elizabeth sleepily. "Didn't mean to fall asleep."

"It's fine, and nowhere near the first time," replied Iain. "Just figured you'd want to be heading home before it got too late, else I'd've just flipped over to something else and let you keep sleeping. Because as much as I shouldn't say this to my engaged best friend, you're cute when you sleep."

Elizabeth blushed slightly, but tried to hide it by burying herself further into his side. But after a second, she looked back up at him and said quietly, "Don't apologize — how am I supposed to figure out if we could work if you _don't_ try to woo me at least a little bit?"

Iain looked down at her sternly. "You're not _supposed_ to be trying to figure out if we can work."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes, pushing off of him and sitting up straight on her side of the couch. “You are _not_ talking me out of this, Iain De Caestecker, and I _will_ be able to tell instantly if you start intentionally pushing me away, so don't even think about trying it. But as it _is_ late, and tonight is not a night I should be sleeping on your couch, I should be going."

"Will I see you tomorrow?” asked Iain as he stood up and followed her to the door.

"I'm not sure,” replied Elizabeth honestly, really not knowing what her day was going to look like now that everything in her life had been thrown on its head. “You may not, it being our off day and me needing to think a lot of things over, but I'll definitely see you at the read through the next day if I don't.”

Iain nodded, before opening the door for her and saying, “Okay. Have a good night, and I’ll see you when I see you.”

“Thank you, and goodnight, Iain,” replied Elizabeth with a smile, leaning up to give him a soft kiss on the cheek before heading out the door.

“Night, Lil,” said Iain softly as he closed the door behind her.


	2. Chapter 2

After saying goodnight to Elizabeth, Iain headed back to his room to go to bed, as it really was late.

But an hour later, he was still wide awake, lying on his back staring up through the darkness at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep. Everything that had transpired since Elizabeth had showed up at his door earlier that evening was still running through his mind at full speed, leaving him with more questions than he had answers for. Questions like, 'Is she really going to do this?’, ‘What is _this_ that she might do?’, and the big one, 'Do I actually want her to be considering me as her husband?’

Well, the answer to that last one was obviously yes, even if he felt too guilty to want to admit it even to himself and certainly wouldn’t admit it to anyone else, even Lil — or especially Lil in this case. And he did feel guilty about it, even if Lil had been right in saying he’d done just about everything he could to keep her from finding out in the first place, and then to dissuade her from even thinking about him instead of her fiancé once she had found out. But that still didn’t make him feel any better about wanting her to end up choosing him over her fiancé.

As for the first question running through his mind, 'Was she really going to do this?', the answer to that one seemed pretty straightforward as well. Lil could be one of the most stubborn people he knew, and if she had her mind set on something, which she clearly did now, she was going to follow through. He just hoped she wouldn’t get too hurt in the process, and made a promise to himself then and there that he would do whatever limited amount he could to try to keep her from getting hurt from the (potentially) stupid decisions she was making.

Now as for what she was actually going to be doing about it all, he really didn’t have a clue, never having been engaged and then realizing he might have feelings for someone else. In fact, he’d barely even dated anyone since he’d met Elizabeth, never making it past a few dates when he did find a girl he thought he might like, a fact he now realized was probably due to a subconscious attraction to his costar and best friend, and always comparing, both subconsciously and consciously now that he thought back on it, any girl he was with to Lil.

But all that thought led to was what was really going to happen now for the indeterminate future while Lil was doing whatever she was going to be doing about all this. It was easy for her to say that on set they had to act like nothing was going on and act like their married characters were supposed to, which included a substantial increase in _personal_ scenes compared to the previous few seasons, the writers clearly having finally figured out that the audience wanted more FitzSimmons, but while it was very true that they had to still be actors first, it was an entirely different matter to actually figure out what that meant and how to do it than just to say it. But he supposed that since she _had_ said that he had to try to ‘woo her’ (her words, not his) during all this, until she said otherwise he would throw himself entirely into their more romantic scenes, and for the short time they were filming, forget everything that was happening in the real world and pretend like he really was Fitz and she really was Simmons, and that there was nothing morally wrong with him doing what he’d wanted to do for real ever since realizing he was in love with Elizabeth.

~AoS~

Meanwhile, as Iain was laying awake in his bed unable to fall asleep, Elizabeth was doing exactly the same in her own bed a few miles away, just with different questions running through her mind.

Her first question was of course whether she really still liked Iain like she once thought she had, or if his telling her he liked her had just briefly sparked up old feelings that weren’t really there anymore. Because none of this matter, and there wouldn’t be any problems at all, if this was all just some short-lived flashback to old times, and not really her current feelings. But unfortunately, she was pretty sure that wasn’t the case. As soon as Iain had said that he liked her, or at least as soon as she’d realized that’s what he was saying and processed it and got over the pure shock of it, her feelings for him that she’d buried deep inside her had begun flaring back to life, even if she had successfully kept control of them enough for the rest of the night not to let Iain know how deep they really ran.

Because the truth was, she certainly did still like him. Had never actually stopped liking him, had simply given up hope that she’d ever have an opportunity to try to be with him, and then had met her fiancé who she also certainly really did like. But there was a difference between simply liking Iain, and him actually possibly being the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. Because that’s what it really all came down to — did she really believe she could spend the rest of her life with Iain, and raise a family with him one day?

And that was the question she really wanted to be able to say no to, to be able to say that he was a great friend that she wanted to continue spending time around, but not someone she could see herself spending the rest of her life with. But she just couldn’t. Because as she’d been sitting there in shocked silence at his confession, before she’d asked him when he’d started feeling that way, as her old feelings had started to resurface from wherever they’d been buried deep inside her, her mind had drifted to the fact that after the end of this season of filming she wouldn’t get to see him nearly every day for half the year at a time, and that thought had been like a douse of cold water to her. She couldn’t imagine not seeing him anymore, didn’t _want_ to not see him anymore, and that thought more than anything had led her to eventually confessing that he wasn’t the only one of them who had feelings for the other.

And if she couldn’t imagine her life without him very much a part of it, then she definitely to at least some extent wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, even if it wasn’t necessarily romantic. But it unfortunately definitely could be romantic, and knowing that meant she had to at the very least consider the possibility that the feelings she clearly still had for him might be of the ’till death do us part’ variety.

So finally relenting to herself that she really did still like Iain, that it wasn't just a ghost of former feelings briefly floating through her mind because of what he’d said, she was now faced with the very real dilemma of what to do about it, and how to figure out what she was supposed to do about it. And for that, she really needed someone to talk to, someone who knew both of them well enough to be able to see things she couldn’t, and provide insight her brain wasn’t going to be able to come up with on its own. But also someone who wouldn’t judge her too harshly for even considering breaking up with her fiancé for Iain in the first place.

And probably the best person for that, unfortunately, wasn’t exactly the most unbiased person she could think of. But she would certainly give her advice, and certainly not judge her, so as long as she took everything the younger girl said with a grain of salt, it could still be helpful, at least as a start.

That finally settled, Elizabeth moved on to the final question that was keeping her from falling into what she knew would be a restless night’s sleep, that of what to actually do in the meantime as she worked her way through all of this. She had told Iain that on-set they had to act like nothing was wrong or off, and act like FitzSimmons were supposed to, but it was one thing to say it, and another thing to actually know what it meant to do it. But eventually she settled on using it as an opportunity to pretend what it might be like actually being with Iain, a (mostly) guilt-free opportunity to be as romantic with him as she wanted, as that was after all what their characters were supposed to be doing, being married and deeply in love and all that.


	3. Chapter 3

The following morning, Elizabeth shot Chloe a quick text asking to meet for lunch.

Chloe could apparently tell the urgency in it, as she almost immediately texted back agreeing, and suggesting Elizabeth’s favorite less well known café where they could hide in a booth in the back and it be less likely for anyone to pay any attention to them or overhear them. So at fifteen minutes before they were to meet, Elizabeth left her apartment to drive over to the out-of-the-way café.

“Hi, Lil!” greeted the younger girl chiperly as soon as she saw her. “Your text sounded urgent — what’s up?”

“Hi, Chloe!” replied Elizabeth brightly walking over to give her a hug, where she added in a lower tone, “And nothing I’m saying out here.”

So Chloe nodded, and led them inside.

Once they had their food and were safely nestled away in the back of the café, she finally asked, “So what’s going on?"

"I just found out that Iain likes me.”

“As in — ?” gasped Chloe.

Elizabeth nodded resignedly. “Yeah. I need help.”

“Aren’t you engaged!?” exclaimed Chloe in a harsh whisper.

“Yes! I am! That’s why I said I need help!” exclaimed Elizabeth a little more loudly than she had intended, quickly looking around to make sure no one had started looking at them. Once she was sure they were still safe, she said more quietly, “Sorry — I’m just a bit on edge. I really don’t know what to do.”

Chloe looked back at her shrewdly for several seconds, before slowly saying, “But you’re considering doing anything at all…. Does that mean—? That you like Iain back?”

Elizabeth nodded her head sadly. “Have for a long time. I just never thought he was interested in me.”

“Not interested in you?! Have you _seen_ the way he acts around you?” exclaimed Chloe. "He’s been head over heels for you for years, and I’m not talking about Fitz and Simmons here.”

“What?! No! He said he just realized it over the break, when I told him I was engaged!” exclaimed Simmons.

“He may have just realized it, but he’s been making heart eyes at you since you met,” replied Chloe, before adding a few seconds later, “Also, you do realize that I’m not in the least bit impartial or a good person to ask for advice about this, right?”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Yes, Chloe, I am more than aware. I just needed _someone_ to talk to, and I knew you wouldn’t be judgmental or scold me for even considering breaking up with my fiancé."

Chloe chuckled lightly. “Well, that I can be. But do remember that I’ve always wanted to see you and Iain together, so don’t ask my opinion of what you should do if you want an unbiased answer.”

They continued to talk for the next several hours, eventually moving to Chloe’s apartment when they couldn’t justify holding up a booth in the café any longer. Chloe poured them each a glass of wine and they sat on her couch, Chloe pulling everything out of Elizabeth that she could.

Eventually, Chloe came to her own conclusion about how everything was going to play out eventually if nothing unexpected happened, and so said bluntly, "You already know who you're going to pick, don't you? You're just trying to pretend you still have a choice in the matter and didn't pick years ago who you'd pick if you ever got the chance."

"What?! No! That's not—! You're making me sound like Simmons! And I am _not_ Simmons!” exclaimed Elizabeth, practically stumbling over her words in her haste to get them out.

"Me think the lady doth protest too much," smirked Chloe. As Elizabeth glared at her, she continued, "Come on, Lil. No one acts the scenes you two have as comfortably as you do if they're just friends. I've kissed several guys on this show, and while I don't know if the whole 'feels like kissing my brother' line is really it, it's definitely awkward. Yours aren't awkward, and have never looked like they are."

"Iain did say the whole 'kissing his sister' thing was just a lie you tell the press to stop rumors," muttered Elizabeth, as much to herself as to Chloe.

“And I assume kissing Iain is nothing like you’d imagine kissing your brother would be like if you had one?” teased Chloe.

Elizabeth merely glared at the younger girl, giving her all the answer she needed. But Chloe did still have one answer she wanted completely out in the open, for Elizabeth to openly admit.

“Elizabeth, just one more question and I will drop this for the time and we can talk about anything else until you need to leave, but I want a completely honest and open answer from you — Okay?” Once Elizabeth had nodded her head, Chloe asked, “Do you enjoy kissing Iain? Do you look forward to scenes where you two get to kiss, and find yourself intentionally holding back when you do get to kiss him because you've know you'd feel bad about kissing him as passionately as you want to when you already had a boyfriend and now fiancé, and because even though your characters are married you know the directors don’t actually want you two to completely act like that since it’s not a TV-M show? Do you want to just grab him and kiss him as hard as you can sometimes, whether it’s a scene you're supposed to be kissing in, or he did a really good job in a scene and you’re proud of him, or just because something he says or does makes you just want to grab and kiss him for no explainable reason, and you have to reel yourself in because you know you can’t do that? Are any of those things ever true? And answer me honestly, Lil.”

Elizabeth stared down at where her hands were folded in her lap for several long seconds, before finally whispering, “Yes.”

Chloe nodded knowingly even though she knew Elizabeth couldn’t see her from where she was still staring at her hands, before suddenly jumping up from her couch and changing the subject abruptly saying, “I have ice cream — mint chocolate chip, your favorite. Want some?”

Accepting the change of subject for the gift it was, Elizabeth looked up and nodded, before asking, “So what’s new with you?”

~AoS~

When Elizabeth left Chloe’s apartment an hour later, she felt slightly better than she had since she’d first confronted Iain two days before, and certainly better than she had since she’d drug Iain's confession out of him the previous night.

While she still didn’t have any actual solutions to any of the problems she now had in her life, she had at least finally laid it all out on the table, and despite both of them knowing that Chloe wasn’t the most objective help ever, the younger girl had made some very good points and given her some very tangible things to be thinking about, and even some ideas on how to better judge her feelings.

Looking at the clock as she turned on her car, she saw it was almost supper time, and decided she’d swing by Iain’s apartment and see if he was around and wanted company for supper.

It wasn’t going to be a date — and that is what she was going to keep telling herself until she believed it. It was just a friendly meal between colleagues and best friends that they’d done literally hundreds of times before, long before any of this mess of feelings had upended her life. They would probably just order takeout or something and watch mindless drivel on the telly until way too late into the night, considering they had to be at the studio fairly early the next morning for read throughs, like completely platonic friends did all the time. So definitely not a date. Nope. No way, whatsoever.

Pulling into Iain’s apartment complex twenty minutes later, Elizabeth was soon knocking on his door, much like she’d done the night before, only this time without any objective other than supper and telly with her best friend, who she might or might not want to pin to the couch and snog senseless for no good reason at some point during the evening.

Nope. Definitely not letting her thoughts go there, and definitely, _definitely_ not acting on them should any such thoughts she'd definitely never had before pop into her head while she was here.

A few seconds later the door was opened by a surprised Iain, who quickly waved her in.

“Hi, Lil. Wasn’t expecting you,” he said as he closed the door shut behind her.

“I was passing by and it was about supper time, so I thought I’d stopped by and see if you’d be interested in splitting some takeout and mindless telly with me,” answered Elizabeth as she walked over to lean against his kitchen counter, before looking back at him. And if she just slightly brought out her best puppy dog eyes, who would really fault her? Not that she thought she actually needed them, she knew Iain would be more than happy to have her stay for supper if he didn’t already have plans, but she was a girl so it was just kind of expected.

“Of course, of course!” replied Iain, before teasingly scolding, “And you know better than needing to go puppy dog eyes on me.”

Walking over to where his cellphone was laying on the counter near where she was leaning, he continued, “Pizza okay?”

They were soon sitting on Iain’s couch laughing and eating pizza, the telly in the background being ignored in favor of the story Elizabeth was telling that she’d heard from Chloe earlier that afternoon. And like so many nights before over the years they’d known each other and filmed together, they ended up with Elizabeth curled into Iain’s side watching telly together (Doctor who reruns this time) and just enjoying each other’s companies, all their real-world problems drifting away for the time being. Neither of them mentioned anything about _them_ , and eventually Elizabeth bid Iain goodnight, promising to see him in the morning for the read through of that week’s episode, both of them feeling like it had been a very well spent evening.


	4. Chapter 4

As Iain walked up to the studio the next morning, he saw Elizabeth waiting outside for him.

“Morning, Lil,” he said with a smile.

“Morning, Iain!” replied Elizabeth brightly. “Ready to find out what FitzSimmons get up to this week?”

“Always,” said Iain, secretly hoping they would have another kissing scene this week, especially now that he had an excuse to really go all in. What he didn’t know, was that Elizabeth was hoping for exactly the same thing.

An hour later, they were reading through the script with the rest of the cast when they finally came upon the weekly FitzSimmons romantic scene, including a kiss in the Zephyr One lab.

As Iain read through his lines, more than pleased at the opportunity it would give him to kiss Lil without feeling (too) guilty about it, his mind was already trying to figure out the best way he could make the most of the kiss. He wasn’t going to intentionally mess it up so they’d have to film it again — he was still a professional after all, and anyway, the director usually wanted them to film scenes like that multiple times so they’d have more to choose from for the final cut — but that didn’t mean he couldn’t slightly fudge exactly what kind of kiss the script wanted it to be to get a slightly longer, more intense kiss with Elizabeth.

And unbeknownst to him, as Elizabeth picked up a second later where her lines began, she was doing exactly the same thing. Fortunately, it was a more lenient scene than some, and could be open to slight interpretation as to exactly how Simmons would react — or at least she could convince herself of that, and if the director didn’t like where she took it, he could just tell her how _they_ thought it should go, and her and Iain would just film it over again. Which when it came to kissing scenes with Iain had never been a negative, even over the past few years when she had been trying to pretend she’d successfully buried her feelings for him.

But pull it off convincingly enough, and especially if Iain would follow her lead, and the director would most likely let it slide even if it wasn't what he had envisioned the kiss being like — it definitely helped to have been playing the same part to wide acclaim for seven years now. She and Iain knew their characters better than anyone, and as long as they were in sync and not too far off script, they could get by with most anything.

Meanwhile, across the room, as she listened to them read their lines, Chloe was wondering how her two British friends were going to handle these kinds of scenes now that they’d finally laid their feelings bare for each other. She really hoped they would be able to tap into those feelings to fuel their scenes together and things not become awkward because of it, but more importantly, she hoped they could use these kinds of scenes as an excuse to show each other their feelings for one other without having to worry about what people might think, since FitzSimmons were _supposed_ to act like a loving married couple who were the stars in each others’ skies.

But as it was wont to do, the script moved on, and all three of them pushed these thoughts to the back of their minds for the time being.

~AoS~

A few days later, they finally got to film the scene.

Like she always did when there was a FitzSimmons scene being filmed and she wasn’t filming elsewhere, Chloe was hanging out in the shadows watching — she wasn’t the captain of the FitzSimmons ship without reason. Elizabeth and Iain, meanwhile, were both on set getting ready to film their scene, each separately preparing to kiss the other for real instead of just the scene, neither aware that the other was planning exactly the same thing.

The director yelled, “Action!”, and they collided together, lips meeting hungrily.

Both of them froze very briefly before almost immediately renewing their vigorous attacks on each other’s lips, neither having expected the other to be taking the exact same approach they were, and therefore being surprised when their own passionate kiss was equally met from the start.

They were so focused on each other that they barely heard the director yell, “Cut!”, and weren’t entirely sure he hadn’t had to say it more than once based on the slightly harsher than normal tone in his voice as he yelled — that, or he was simply substantially less than pleased with their interpretation of the scene.

The pair quickly glanced at each other, wondering if they were about to get in real trouble, before looking over at the director.

“Okay… that was — well — very _convincing_. But tone it back on the next take. This is supposed to be a family show, and we’d like to keep that rating,” said the director sternly, but not angrily.

Considering themselves lucky, Elizabeth and Iain both hurriedly nodded in slight embarrassment, before resetting. Even they had known as soon as they had broken apart and could think again that that one had been going too far to be believable for the scene they were filming at the moment, and that they were lucky to get away with nothing more than a warning. So when the director yelled “Action!” again they toned it back a bit, though based on the pointed look the director gave them as he told everyone to reset to shoot it one more time, it was still more than he was particularly happy with.

They, on the other hand, had been more than happy with both kisses, at least on a personal level if not necessarily an acting level. It was the first time all season Iain had fully been engaged in a scene like this, and Elizabeth could tell. It also lit her nerves on fire (and pooled a small amount of heat in her stomach), and she found herself aching for more. Fortunately, they had at least one more take that day, even if she did have to reel herself even further back for it, so she would get at least one more taste of his lips before she had to wait another week or two to do it again.

As for Iain, it had been the first time all season that he'd let himself kiss Elizabeth for real, and it felt so good, better than he could ever remember. Because even up until that season, there had still always been a little hesitation, holding back just a little bit, because they were just actors acting. And anyways, he hadn’t consciously realized his feelings for her back then, so he couldn’t have kissed her with the same intensity and feelings behind it he had now even if he’d wanted to.

After the third time through and the scene having been called a wrap, the director just kind of shook his at them as he walked over, and said, “That was still a bit… _beyond_ what the script called for, but given the nature of your characters, not unbelievable. Just — stick closer to the script in the future. Please."

Elizabeth and Iain both nodded penitently and said, “Yes, Sir” in sync, before scurrying off set, Elizabeth whispering to Iain, “Looks like we both had the same idea about how to handle this awkwardness between us when we’re on set.”

“Seems so,” chuckled Iain in an equal undertone. “But you did tell me I needed to, and I quote, ‘woo you at least a little bit’. What’s _your_ excuse?”

“How am I supposed to tell if things between us could be possible if I don’t actually try it some?” answered Elizabeth slightly defensively, before mumbling, “And maybe, just a tiny bit maybe, I've kind of really wanted to do that for far longer than I’ll ever admit.”

At that moment they saw Chloe walking towards them, a big smirk on her face.

“Wow! Just wow,” she said as soon as she was close enough to be able to speak quietly enough that no one around should accidentally overhear them. “I knew you two never really just felt of each other as friends even if you couldn’t see it yet, but that was absolutely wow. So when will I be getting my wedding invitation?”

As Elizabeth groaned and rolled her eyes, Iain looked over at Elizabeth and said, “I’m guessing when you talked with Chloe yesterday, you didn’t just talk about her new puppy?”

“We might not have,” mumbled Elizabeth, before saying unashamedly, “I needed someone to talk to about everything, and while Chloe _clearly_ isn’t good for purely objective advice, I knew I could tell her everything without worrying about her judging me, or telling anyone.”

“Damn right, girl,” smirked Chloe. “Not that rumors aren’t going to start on their own if you two keep kissing like that. That was hot!”

Elizabeth and Iain both groaned and rolled their eyes at that, but secretly agreed. And agreed that they were going to have to be a little more careful with their onscreen kisses, or people _would_ begin to get suspicious, and the last thing they needed was for rumors to start getting out. And anyway, directors weren’t going to be too happy with them if they kept fudging the script like that.

Leaving Chloe to run off to her next scene and continuing their walk to the break room, Elizabeth said quietly, “Chloe’s right — we are going to have to be more careful on set. I still think exploring _us_ on set is a good idea, but we are going to have to keep it more in line with what we’re asked.”

“Agreed,” nodded Iain. "But you have to admit, that felt good — or at least it did to me.”

“Obviously,” replied Elizabeth like it was the most obvious fact in the world. “And I have to say — damn you’re a good kisser when you really try.”

“Uh, thanks?” said Iain as they walked into the break room.

Elizabeth laughed. “It was a compliment, Iain. You don’t have to look so worried.”

By this point they had made it to the food, and other people so they dropped any topics about themselves for the time being, and joined Clark Gregg at a table to eat lunch and go over the scenes they would be filming that afternoon.


	5. Chapter 5

Over the next several weeks, Iain and Elizabeth continued to use every on-set opportunity they had to test out their feelings for one another.

They also started making a habit of going to each other’s apartments for supper at least once a week. Not that they didn’t end up at each other’s apartments more often than that, both for takeout and telly or just to talk about anything and nothing, but these nights they specifically set aside to actually cook, and intentionally spend the evening with each other. Neither of them were willing to call it such, but they both knew they were dates, as there was no way just the two of them could be seen eating alone together in public, or even be seen alone together in public very often at all, or rumors would get started. Not that there weren’t always rumors floating around, but the fewer rumors there were to reach the ears of Elizabeth’s fiancé at the moment, the better. They both knew a day of reckoning would be coming if Elizabeth did decide to pick him over her fiancé, or even if she didn’t but her fiancé started hearing rumors she couldn’t deny or explain her way out of, but that was something they’d rather put off for as long as they could if possible.

During these dates (and the other nights they ended up at the other’s apartment), especially the first few weeks of doing them, they intentionally avoided talking about themselves at all, as Iain knew Elizabeth was still trying to figure everything out and didn’t want to pressure her at all, especially as he still didn’t really feel very good about the whole thing, and Elizabeth was trying to ignore the fact she had a very real decision she was going to have to make eventually, an eventually drawing ever closer as each week passed.

But eventually the season crossed past the midway point of filming, and Elizabeth knew they were going to have to actually start talking about _them_ , for as much as she had insisted that this was her life and her decision, it was still in reality a two person issue. After all, if Iain didn’t actually feel like he could possibly spend the rest of his life with her, then there was no decision for her to actually have to make, and she needed to call their entire experiment off as soon as she could before it did explode in all of their faces. She was pretty sure she knew what his answer would be, but she needed to know for sure before she could begin thinking about her own decisions she was soon going to have to make.

So as they made their way through supper at Iain’s apartment on one of these date nights, she looked across the table at Iain and said, “So I’ve been thinking….”

Iain paused with his fork still stuck in the piece of lasagna he’d been about to pick up and looked across the table at her, giving her his attention and waiting for her to continue.

After a few seconds she did. “We’re past the halfway point of filming, which means we only have a little over two months to go before filming wraps. And while that might seem like a long time, it really isn’t when it comes to the kind of decision I’m going to have to make before it’s over.”

She paused again for several seconds, toying with the breadstick she’d picked up at some point, before continuing, “Which means you and I have to actually begin talking about this. And I’m not saying you’ve been avoiding it, it’s me whose been avoiding it and you’ve just been trying to give me my time and space, which I’m grateful for. But we — or really _I_ — don’t have the luxury of time anymore. So before those discussions can even begin, I have one question I need you to absolutely honestly answer me. Okay?”

“Of course, Lil — anything,” replied Iain.

“Do you believe you could, and would want to, spend the rest of your life with me? Is that something you can honestly say you could see yourself doing one day? I know feelings could change if we did start dating, but is it even something you would want, something you can see as a possibility?”

Iain took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, knowing just how important his answer would be to everything that would follow. He knew she wasn’t asking for any kind of promise from him, and he knew she wasn’t and wouldn’t be making him any promises to him in return yet, either, that she still might end up coming to the conclusion that she was already with the right person. They both knew that it was far too early to be making any kind of promises like that, but if the possibility of being able to eventually make a promise like that wasn’t there to begin with, then there was no reason for them to even consider moving forward.

“Yes."

Iain had never felt more sure about any answer he’d ever given in his life. He truly believed without a shadow of a doubt that he could see himself spending the rest of his life with the girl in front of him.

Whether it was _right_ for either of them he didn’t know, whether it was even a real possibility for them he didn’t know, but he did know that it was something he could see, and certainly something he wasn’t opposed to. And that was the best promise he could give her at the moment, and what she needed to know to begin making her own decision.

Elizabeth nodded her head. "Okay then. We go from there.”

And with that she began eating again, Iain following her lead after a few more seconds, knowing she would talk when she was ready.

As for Elizabeth, she decided that now that she knew that everything really was a real possibility, that she really had a decision she was going to have to make, she needed to seriously think everything over herself before she tried having any further conversations about it with Iain, and so didn’t say anything further about it for the rest of the evening, instead just joining him on the couch curled into his side to watch the Man U game, as had been their routine for years.

As Iain held the door open for her to leave a few hours later and they said their goodbyes, she said, “I will talk to you and soon, I promise. I just need to think things over myself first now that I know this decision is going to be for real.”

“Of course, Lil,” replied Iain. "I completely understand. Take whatever time you need you."

* * *

Elizabeth didn’t bring it up again for another two weeks.

They were eating supper, at Elizabeth’s apartment this time, when there was a lull in the conversation that she broke by saying, “I’m ready to talk more — assuming you haven’t changed your mind, of course.”

Iain looked up, giving her his full attention to continue.

“If you could, would you become my boyfriend right now? And I don’t mean right here at my dinner table, but just now as opposed to a month or two down the road or something like that.”

“I would unquestionably become your boyfriend and have the honor of you becoming my girlfriend at this very kitchen table right here and now if I could and you would have me,” answered Iain earnestly. “I wouldn’t waste a moment more than I already have if that was an option. Which of course I know it isn’t, but if it was I would."

“Okay, then,” nodded Elizabeth. “Since you can see yourself spending the rest of your life with me and would start dating me immediately if I were single and none of my actual life existed, and I obviously feel the same way about you or we wouldn’t be having this discussion in the first place, we can start actually talking about the possibility of us. And first off, I haven’t made any kind of decision — just so that’s clear from the very beginning. But I _am_ obviously considering this, or like I said, we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all.

“But I do like you. A lot. Have for a long time, and after the last two months, all those old feelings I had for you are clearly still very much alive and thriving. And I have enjoyed every moment we’ve stolen on set under the pretense of being FitzSimmons. But I haven’t _stopped_ liking my fiancé through any of this, either. At least not in some big ‘I no longer love him at all and there’s no way I could spend the rest of my life with him’ kind of way. Maybe I like you more than him now, but it’s not like I _can’t_ see being able to spend the rest of my life with him, either. It’s confusing.”

Elizabeth paused for a second, before adding with a slight smirk, "Just a suggestion, Iain, but don’t get engaged and then find out the girl you’ve always liked likes you back — it’s a struggle. Unless that girl’s me, of course, then definitely do it,” she finished with a chuckle.

“Don’t worry — you’re the only girl I _have_ ever liked to that amount,” Iain laughed lightly in reply. “Which also means if you do hypothetically choose me, you’d be safe from ever being in your fiancé’s current position.”

“Well, that’s good to know,” smiled back Elizabeth, before continuing on seriously, “So in truth, I don’t know what to do, or how to decide. This is more than just some pros and cons list, this is the rest of three people’s lives I’m having to make a decision about. But I figure the first step is seriously talking with you about it, since you are one of the three people it’ll change the life of if I do it.

“And to start that, while I know we’ve had numerous discussions over the past several years about our own personal thoughts on having a family, presumably neither of us thinking about the other as being a part of that family when we were talking about it. So has anything substantially changed since the last time we talked about it that would need to be discussed, whether that’s because it’s now the two of us we’re talking about, or just some change in general, or is everything basically the same as it’s been all the previous times we’ve talked about things like that before?” asked Elizabeth.

“The same,” answered Iain. “You?”

“Same as well. So that’s not really an issue we need to discuss much unless you want to, as we already have basically the same ideas on a family,” replied Elizabeth, trying to think of other big topic issues they needed to make sure they were still in agreement about before she could make any decision about possibly moving forward with him. “How about our jobs, then? We know we’re not going to be filming the same things anymore most likely, unless Netflix picks us up and gives us new life or Disney brings AoS over to the MCU, so we’re going to be spending a lot of time apart. And we’re both going to have to kiss people other than each other being actors.”

“Yeah,” sighed Iain. “That last part’s not going to be fun, but neither was knowing you kissed Dilon in season three, or I’m sure for you watching me kiss Mallory in season four. But it’s part of our line of work, something I’d have to accept if I married any other actress, and something both of our spouses would have to accept from us, so it’s nothing specific to you and I being together. And as for the first part, I’d still rather know I would get to go home to you at the end of the day — at least figuratively if not literally —than only ever seeing you at the odd premier, or convention, or Christmas party because you’re with someone else."

“I feel the same,” replied Elizabeth. “It’ll be no fun seeing you kiss other girls, and it won’t be fun having to kiss other guys, but I don’t want to give up acting and I don’t want you to have to give up acting, so it’s just something we have to accept. And I can’t expect my partner to be okay with me having to kiss other guys if I can’t be okay with him kissing other girls if that’s part of his job — that wouldn’t be fair of me. But as long as we both trust each other, I think we’ll be okay.”

“Which I suppose asks the question, do we trust each other that much?” replied Iain.

“If either of us shouldn’t, it would be you,” answered Elizabeth with a wry smile. “I am after all the one cheating to be with you how we currently are.”

“I trust you implicitly, Lil,” replied Iain, voice full of conviction, as he shook his head in disagreement with her statement. “As for our current situation, you have done everything you can not to cheat on him while doing this. We haven’t kissed a single time off-screen, or done anything that we hadn’t already done a thousand times before I realized that I like you. We’ve even stopped ever sleeping on each other’s couches like we used to on the odd occasion, despite plenty of late nights when in the past we might have. And as for our dinners, we have formalized them and fancied them up slightly, but it’s not like we didn’t used to already eat together alone a couple times a week, even one of us cooking or the two of us cooking together from time to time like we simply now do weekly.”

“Yes, but they are still intentionally dates, even if we refuse to acknowledge them as that. And I think they are necessary for this, but that doesn’t mean I think I’m innocent doing them,” countered Elizabeth. “And even less excusable than that, we may not have kissed off-screen, but we haven't just kissed as necessitated by our jobs when we’re on set. We can try to justify that away all we want, but the fact is I _am_ kissing you for the sake of kissing you when I do it. So between dates and on-screen kisses, I’m certainly emotionally cheating on my fiancé if not at least slightly physically cheating, so I’m not going to sit here and try to pretend to you or myself that I’m innocent. I've tried to do the least amount of cheating that I can, but there's just been no way to avoid it entirely trying figure this out. But my point being, you need to keep that in mind when you say you want to date me.”

Iain sighed. “Lil — I still trust you implicitly, regardless of that. And I especially would if it wasn’t just _that_ kind of ring on your finger, but the one that comes after it,” he said seriously, nodding towards her engagement ring that she’d made a point to wear to on every single one of their dates as a reminder to both of them so they wouldn’t be tempted to do anything more. “I already trust you wouldn’t cheat on me if we started dating, but I would absolutely trust that you would never cheat on me, or do anything beyond what is required for our job, if _that_ promise had been made. Do you trust me to do the same?”

“Of course, Iain!” exclaimed Elizabeth. “Always!”

“Then we can check trust off the list."

Elizabeth looked back at him for several long seconds, as if doubting it could really be that simple, until finally accepting that he really did trust her absolutely despite what she considered her own current cheating. “Okay.

“Then can you think of anything else we absolutely need to make sure we’re in agreement on before I continue considering this?”

Iain thought hard for several seconds, before answering, “I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head. We want to date, can see spending the rest of our lives together and have the same general ideas on a family, accept the fact that our job will keep us apart a lot and that both of us will have to kiss people besides each other, and trust each other not to cheat with either of those things or for any other reason. Seems like that covers all the most important things to me."

“Then let’s just watch some telly for the rest of the evening,” replied Elizabeth. “That’s enough for me to think about on my own for another week."


	6. Chapter 6

The next two weeks, when they met for their weekly date, Elizabeth and Iain continued to talk over the realisticness of them being together, and whether they seriously thought it would work out if she decided to give them a chance.

But the following week, four weeks before filming was set to wrap and she’d have to have made a decision by, Elizabeth pulled Chloe away from the set for lunch at Chloe's apartment to talk before her date with Iain that evening.

“So what’s got you all worked up, girlfriend?” asked Chloe as soon as they sat down to eat. “You’re never this insistent to have lunch with me. Something about Iain?”

Simmons nodded as she started to eat. “Filming is quickly nearing its end, and that means I have to make a decision soon. And while I’m nowhere near actually ready to make that life-changing decision, Iain does deserve to know soon something of what’s most likely to happen. I know he’ll insist it doesn’t matter, for me to take whatever time I need, but he deserve something anyway. And I’m not ready to even give that much this week, but I really do need to have at least some leaning by next week.”

“I assume that means you two have been talking about this?” asked Chloe. “Because he deserves at least some say in this decision, even if the final decision is entirely yours.”

“Of course,” answered Elizabeth. “We had our first serious discussion about the realisticness of us five weeks ago, and then the past three weeks we’ve discussed it a lot more.”

“So what can I help with?” asked Chloe. “Seems like you’re already talking to the person you need to."

“Can you tell me which choice is right?” said Elizabeth with a wry smile.

Chloe chuckled sympathetically. “Sorry girl, but that’s the one thing I can’t do. My own personal daydreams of what I wish would happen most definitely should _not_ be taken into account in your decision. This is real life, not some extension of FitzSimmons. You have to be the one to make this decision, and I’m too biased to give you any good advice on what you should choose. The only answer I can give you is, Who would you rather spend the rest of your life with, and do you think it’s a real possibility that it could happen?

“If you’re at this stage and still have both options open, I would hope you’ve already come to the belief that you could spend the rest of your life with either of them. So at this point, it’s a matter of whether you think each could actually happen if that’s the way you choose, and then which guy you’d rather spend the rest of your life with. But that’s something only you can know.”

Elizabeth sighed, nodding. “I know. And I think I probably deep down know the answer to that question, I’m just scared to be wrong. This isn’t a decision I can make lightly — which is probably the understatement of the year,” she finished with a light chuckle.

“I know you’ll come to the right decision,” replied Chloe, patting Elizabeth on the shoulder empathetically.

~AoS~

That evening, Elizabeth was quieter than normal.

She didn’t bring _them_ up at all during supper like she had the previous three weeks, and she didn’t talk as much as she normally did in general, either, letting Iain carry most of the conversation. But Iain wasn’t particularly worried, as he could tell she was heavily preoccupied, and if she needed more time to think about things before she talked with him about it again, he was more than willing to give her all the time she wanted. Plus, she hadn’t canceled their weekly date, she simply wasn’t as talkative as usual and hadn’t brought them up, so he assumed things couldn’t be too bad for him, or else she wouldn’t have come at all or she would have said something by then. So he simply carried the conversation wherever she seemed most engaged, and gave her all the space she needed on any more serious subjects.

But as they washed up dishes after supper, she looked over at him and said apologetically, “Sorry for not being more talkative tonight, Iain. There’s just a lot on my mind, and not really anything new for you and I to discuss at the moment, and the things on my mind are more things I need to think about alone than talk over. So if you don’t mind, I’d really just like to just relax on the couch and watch telly tonight.”

“Of course, Lil,” replied Iain. “But just to be clear, is that watching telly with me or without?”

“With you, of course!” exclaimed Elizabeth. “I’m so, so sorry I made it sound like I wanted to be alone!”

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” chuckled Iain, before continuing on sincerely, "Of course I didn’t want you to go, but I would completely understand if you did want to be alone. You don’t have to be ashamed or hesitant to tell me when you’d rather not be here — I won’t be upset, I promise.”

“I know, Iain. You’re one of the nicest, most compassionate people I’ve ever been privileged to meet, and I know you wouldn’t hold it against me if I did need a night off,” said Elizabeth, quickly drying her hands off so she could wrap him in a hug. “But I promise I don’t want to be away from you, I’m just not in a position to have any discussions like we have the past few weeks, and I really do just want to crash and not have to think about anything for a few hours, curled up with my favorite living hot water bottle.”

She pulled back with a slight smirk on her face, that was matched by Iain.

“Well then, in that case, I guess I can tell you that I bought your favorite ice cream the other day on one of my rare trips to the grocery store that you didn’t force me to go on.”

“And you were going to keep that a secret from me?!” gasped Elizabeth in mock aghastness and scolding. “Knowing you were going to try to hid that from me, I may have to completely reconsider leaving my fiancé for you. How can I ever trust someone who would keep ice cream from me?”

Iain laughed. “And here I thought I had done a good thing by getting it in the first place. And going to the grocery store on my own at all.”

“Okay, fine — that does have to count for something,” relented Elizabeth playfully. “I guess I’ll keep thinking this over after all, so long as you immediately get me a bowl and then come curl up on the couch with me.”

“Your wish is my command, m’ Lady,” replied Iain with a fake bow, causing Elizabeth to playfully slap him on the chest before dashing off to the couch to find something to watch and wait for him.

~AoS~

A few hours later, Elizabeth stretched and yawned.

She had nearly fallen asleep several times during the last thirty minutes, and knew she really needed to leave before she was too tired to do so at all. Also, she’d had a couple thoughts about her and Iain that she wanted to say before she left, and she didn’t want to keep him up too late either as they had filming the next day that they both needed to be rested for. So she sat up straight instead of leaning back into his side, and waited for him to instinctively flip the tv off to see what she had to say.

When he had, she said, "I do need to leave in a minute, but first, I just wanted to say a couple things really quick about us and my decision. And before I say them, I also need to say that I don’t know what my decision is going to be yet. Everything I’m about to say is just _if_ I do decide to pick you, not that I already have.

“But the first thing is, if I do pick you, it changes both of our lives forever. I will of course no longer be engaged, and any future with my current fiancé will be gone forever, whatever happens between you and I. And while I don’t know what will happen between you and I, things certainly won't be the same between us whatever does happen. Now, things may have already changed for us forever just because of what we’ve been doing the past several months, I don’t know, but I do know for sure that if I pick you, both our lives will forever be different because of that choice.

“And secondly, I don’t think we should start dating immediately. And certainly not in public, or anywhere it could possibly leak out. Which given who we are, and the upcoming press and convention tour, and the fact that even more eyes than normal will be on us because it’s the final season, means I don’t think we should try secretly dating for a while, either, as much as I know I will want to if I pick you. But everyone will already be wondering if my breakup is because of you, we don’t want to confirm those rumors. It would hurt my fiancé — well, worse than breaking up with him already will — it would make both of us look even worse than we already will when we do announce we’re dating, and it would put unnecessary pressure on us working out, which I for one don’t want — there will be enough pressure on us just from ourselves and the fact it was a deliberate decision I made to go that route. And none of us should have to put up with any of that. Now, there is always the chance my fiancé will toss us to the press out of spite, but I hope, and don’t think he will, as much as he would have every right to, with what I’m doing to him.”

“What _we’re_ doing to him,” corrected Iain.

“No — this is all on me,” replied Elizabeth shaking her head. “You’re an innocent victim when it comes to any fights between my at that point ex-fiancé and I. You simply have feelings for me, I’m the one who will have actually made the decision to act on them — I take all the blame for any revenge he attempts, and anything you might suffer because of it."

Iain gave her a look that expressed just how much he disagreed with her, but he knew better than to argue with her about it. What would happen would happen, and anyway, she hadn’t even made that decision yet for any of it to possibly happen. But he did agree with what she had been saying before that, and said so.

“You’re right about not immediately dating. Maybe a promise to each other that we will start dating once things settle down, but we certainly shouldn’t start acting like we’re dating right after you’ve broken up with your fiancé — if that’s what you do, of course, not saying you will,” he replied. “But we will at least be able to still see each other a lot, as we will have the press tour starting soon after the end of filming and all this would take place.”

“We’re just going to have to be really careful we don’t slip up and be overly affectionate,” added Elizabeth. “Although hopefully nobody will know I’m no longer engaged, and I can avoid questions about it, and we can make it though the entire thing without it coming up — but that’s probably wishful thinking. What’s not so wishful thinking, though, is both of us getting some sleep before tomorrow morning. That’s all I really wanted to say, so unless you had something else you wanted to say, I think I should be heading on.”

“I don’t have anything to add, but I could definitely use some sleep,” answered Iain, standing up and giving Elizabeth his hand to pull her up off the couch after him.

They walked to his door together, but before she opened it to leave, Elizabeth paused.

“One more quick thing, and I promise I’ll leave. Iain, I will try to at least have an idea of what my decision is going to be by next week’s date night. It certainly won’t be final, but you deserve to start having some more definitive answers, and not just the ‘I don’t know yet’ I’ve been saying. And I know you’re about to say it doesn’t matter, and to take as much time as I need, but for one thing I don’t have as much time as I need, and for another, you do deserve to start getting real answers. So I will try to have some idea of where I’m leaning by next week. Like I said, it definitely won’t be definitive, and things could still change, but I want to give you something.”

Iain simply nodded, knowing there was nothing he could say to persuade her otherwise, even if it really didn’t matter to him to have an answer by the following week, or really even before they parted ways at the end of the show. It’s not like he was going to be looking for a girlfriend any time soon if she did decide to stay with her fiancé like the more moral side of him still believed she should, while the more selfish half really wanted her to choose him. But either way, he wasn’t going to have any desire to be looking for a girlfriend between now and the end of filming, so knowing which direction she was leaning really wasn’t something he had to have.

“Goodnight, Iain. I had a really nice night tonight, even if I wasn’t quite my normal chipper self. I promise.”

“I know, Lil. Goodnight, and see you way too early in the morning."


	7. Chapter 7

A week later, Iain knocked on Elizabeth’s door, wondering if she really was going to have an initial decision that day, and more importantly, if it would be him.

He’d told her at lunch the day after their last date that it really didn’t matter if she told him anything this week or not, and that _was_ true, but since she had insisted again that she was going to tell him something this week, it had been all he could think about for the past few days. And it wasn’t so much that he actually needed her to tell him which way she was leaning, it was simply that if she wasn’t going to tell him yet, he needed her to tell him _that_ , so he would know and could stop being so tense and nervous for something that wasn’t going to happen. Or else just tell him whatever her thoughts were already so he’d just know, whether they were good or bad for him. After all, waiting really was often worse than whatever it was you were waiting on.

But he wasn’t about to tell her any of that, or demand any kind of answer from her if she didn’t want to give it or before she wanted to give it, so he kept his nervous feelings to himself all throughout supper, trying to carry on as normal of a conversation with her as he could so she wouldn’t realize the suspense he was in and feel any pressure to say anything before she was ready.

Once supper was over and dishes were put away, Elizabeth went and sat on her couch, looking at Iain expectantly for him to join her, clearly having something she was ready to say. So Iain joined her on the couch, and waited for her to speak.

After a second, Elizabeth took a deep breath and began, “I’m sorry for taking so long tonight to say this, but I didn’t want there to be any potential distractions when I did, and to be perfectly honest, I’m more than just a little nervous to actually put this out in the open for someone besides myself to know.”

At this last bit, Iain’s hopes soared, before he quickly shoved them back down so he wouldn’t be completely crushed if he’d misunderstood what she meant by that. But outwardly he merely continued looking at her patiently, waiting for her to continue when she was ready.

“Iain — I think I'm going to choose you. Chloe said that as long as I honestly believed it could happen, I should go with the person I would prefer spending the rest of my life with, the person I would prefer be the father of my children, which is you, Iain. And I know we will have a challenging road ahead of us, and there are no guarantees at this early of a point, but I do honestly believe we have a real chance to work out, and if I knew both options could work out, you would be the one I’d rather spend the rest of my life with. So unless something changes, I will break up with my fiancé and start dating you — once it’s been long enough, of course.”

As soon as she said ‘I think I’m going to choose you’, Iain’s heart soared out of his chest with joy. But as he knew it wasn’t a final decision, and certainly wasn’t her actually breaking up with her fiancé and starting to date him, he kept it inside of him as best he could. He was sure he was quivering with happiness so much that she could tell from where she was sitting next to him how excited he was without his having to say anything, but that was involuntary and couldn’t be helped. Anyway, it would be good for her to know how much he liked her decision, even if it was best he not actually say it out loud, as it _was_ just a preliminary decision and he didn’t want to put any unnecessary pressure on her. So he merely nodded as solemnly as he could, before a question he’d been wanting to ask for months came back into his mind, and he decided it was finally an okay time to ask it.

“Lil, you know I’m beyond happy with that being the direction you’re leaning, and you can probably feel that radiating off me, as I feel like I’m about to burst from trying not to let any of it out and therefore put undue pressure on you should you end up wanting to change your mind, but it does make me have to ask — as I’m sure you haven’t just stopped talking to your fiancé altogether during these past several months, is he at all suspicious that anything is going on behind his back? And tonight isn’t the first time I’ve wondered that, I just haven’t been bold enough to ask it before now.”

“You could have asked, I wouldn’t have minded,” said Elizabeth lightly. "But to answer your question — No. I don’t think so. Which kind of makes me feel even worse about all this, in a weird way — I guess in the fact that I can pull all this off _without_ him ever suspecting it. Now, I have stopped talking to him on the phone quite as often, blaming it on a hectic final season of filming, which isn’t a lie, and just texting him a little more than I previously did to partially make up for it, so I have kind of limited the opportunities that he could suspect something is wrong, other than just noticing that I don’t talk to him quite as much in general. But best as I know, he isn’t suspicious of a thing.”

Iain nodded, before saying, “Well, like I said I _am_ certainly happy about where you’re leaning, but I don’t actually know what the proper thing for me to do or say now is.”

Elizabeth chuckled lightly. “Yeah — I don’t ether, to be honest. But I just wanted you to know what I was thinking, so it’s fine for you not to say anything and us just to find something on the telly to watch and spend the rest of our evening like we always do."

So that is what they quickly did, neither of them bringing up her initial decision again until Elizabeth flipped off the telly when Iain yawned and said it was really time he ought to be heading home.

At which point she straightened up from where she’d been curled into his side and said, “Before you go, there is one last question I need to ask you before I can begin making my final decision."

“Of course. What is it?” asked Iain.

Turning to face him and taking both of his hands in hers, much the same way Fitz had Simmons’ in Atarah’s mind prison, Elizabeth asked solemnly, “Iain De Caestecker — if I break up with my fiancé, will you promise to start dating me as soon as everything’s blown over enough that we feel like it’s safe to do so?”

“Absolutely, Lil,” answered Iain equally solemnly.

“Then give me a week or two to make sure I’m as positive as I can be that this is the right decision, and if I still am then I will tell you, and I will break up with my fiancé as soon as I get back from filming. And we will go from there."


	8. Chapter 8

“It’s you, Iain.”

Iain had just opened his front door at Elizabeth’s knock, and hadn’t even had time to say hi before she’d blurted it out.

It was two weeks after she’d given him her initial decision, and she’d finally bit the bullet and made up her mind for real the morning before. It had been really difficult not to say anything all of that day or today when she’d been around him all of both days with read-throughs and on set practicing before actual filming, but she’d wanted to give herself at least one full day after she made her final decision to make sure she didn’t suddenly completely regret it, and then she’d known she would see him at their date this evening, and so decided it best to wait until now to tell him, and not risk anyone overhearing them around set. Anyway, date nights were their set time to talk about these things, so who was she to mess with tradition. But now that she was at his apartment and date night had officially begun, she couldn’t hold it in any longer.

As soon as Elizabeth said he was her choice, Iain couldn’t help himself. Without even taking the extra second to close the door behind them, he engulfed Elizabeth in the tightest hug he thought he’d probably ever given her, kissing her on the top of the head. He was completely aware that she was still in fact an engaged woman, that picking him hadn't done anything to change that, and he refused to be the cause of her cheating on, or even allow her to cheat on her still fiancé with him, but as it certainly wasn’t the first time he’d ever kissed the top of her head, he thought that was safe enough to do to let her know just how happy he was, while still feeling okay about himself.

Elizabeth hugged him back tightly, having just enough awareness still about her to kick the open door shut with her foot.

Breaking apart, Iain said as casually as he could (and knowing he failed miserably), “As you can probably tell, I’m rather happy about your decision.”

“Oh, please,” teased Elizabeth, rolling her eyes playfully. “You want to run around and scream like a girl in your ecstaticness.”

“Not exactly the words I would have used, but yeah,” replied Iain with a grin. “I’m certainly not going to deny that I am very happy you picked me.”

“I’m happy, too,” said Elizabeth softly. “Don't hate me, but I actually made my decision yesterday morning. But I wanted a full day to make sure I didn’t suddenly regret it for some reason after I'd made it, and then I forced myself to hold out today until our date. But my certainty that I've made the right decision has only increased since I made it, so I am really happy about everything, too. And if I wasn’t still engaged, I would absolutely snog you senseless right now — just so you know.”

“And just so you know, I would absolutely do exactly the same if it weren’t for that,” answered Iain with a grin. “But since I can’t, how about I show you how much I want snog you with my absolutely splendid homemade shepherd’s pie?”

“You _do_ make a mean shepherd’s pie,” chuckled Elizabeth. “And while I can’t say it will be as good as being snogged senseless by you, I guess it will have to do until we can snog on set tomorrow."

~AoS~

The following afternoon, Elizabeth and Iain were standing on set, about to film.

The director, who happened to be the same director they’d had the very first week they’d decided to start testing on set the possibility of a relationship between them, walked over to them.

“Okay — since this scene is your characters' passionate reunion after being separated by the Chronicoms at the end of last episode and the first half of this episode, and it _is_ the final episode of the show, let loose if you still want to. There’s the tamer kissing scene nearer the end when Simmons tells Fitz she’s pregnant that you'll need to be more composed on, but for this one kiss, I will leave it up to you two how passionate you want to make it, so long as it's believable and convincing.”

It was everything Elizabeth and Iain could do to keep from grinning like idiots at their good luck. But they just barely managed to hold it inside, and simply nod back at the director, Elizabeth saying, “Yes, Sir.”

They lined up on their marks, awaiting the director’s ‘Action!’. As soon as he gave it, they pounced on each other like any madly in love and separated by enemy forces couple would, or like a couple who’d recently agreed to date one another but hadn’t been able to kiss at the time would.

As soon as the director yelled “Cut!” they broke apart, both more than slightly breathless. They’d kissed fairly passionately the first time they’d kissed under this director nearly three-quarters of the season earlier, and had kissed acceptably passionate in a few scenes that allowed for it since then, but nothing had come close to the intensity they had on this kiss. Despite the director’s permission that they could do whatever they liked on this scene, they both in sync looked over at the director, worried that they'd still gone too far and were going to get in trouble again.

But the director merely gave them brief smile, before saying to everyone there, “That can’t be improved on. This scene’s a wrap.”

Turning and smiling brightly at each other, Elizabeth and Iain walked off set together, just to have Chloe join in step with them as they headed to the break room until it was time to film their later scenes.

The younger girl was practically bouncing up and down as she said in an undertone so no one passing by them could hear, "I thought from the radiance of Iain’s face as you two walked in together this morning and the fact that last night was your weekly night to eat together, that you had given him a final answer and he liked it, but that kiss just proved it beyond all doubt. You two have kissed passionately before, but holy cow! I could feel the intensity all the way from over where I was standing!”

“You were standing two feet off set, and the director and cameramen were glaring at you for being so close and potentially risking their shot,” replied Elizabeth with a roll of her eyes. “Not exactly the same as saying you could feel it from your normal hiding spot in the shadows. But to answer your statement — yes. This is the choice I’ve made. I now just have to actually make it official on my side after filming ends, and then once it’s been long enough that the press won’t have a complete field day with it, season three and four FitzSimmons will become a little less purely fictional.”

“I want to squeal with happiness!” replied Chloe giddily. “I know you two are going to be amazing together — you’re absolutely perfect for each other.”

“We’re both happy with my decision, and I haven’t had any doubts about whether I made the right decision or not, so we’re pretty confident at the moment,” said Elizabeth. “But enough of that right now, or we’ll risk someone overhearing.”

“Of course, of course,” replied Chloe. “But you have to tell me everything soon. Both of you.”

Elizabeth and Iain both nodded their agreement, before Chloe drifted off to talk with Clark about a scene the two of them had coming up shortly, while Elizabeth and Iain sat down at a table to read over their scripts together for their own final scenes later that afternoon.


	9. Chapter 9

A week later, Elizabeth walked into the apartment she shared with her fiancé — though that wasn’t a term she would be using much longer, she knew.

As soon as she walked in, she was greeted by said fiancé with a tight hug. Elizabeth let him hug her, but barely returned it at all, and certainly not as much as she had at their reunions before then, causing her fiancé to pull back and look at her.

“What’s wrong?” he asked concerned.

“We need to talk,” answered Elizabeth with a sigh.

“That’s never a good thing to hear,” replied Elizabeth’s fiancé with a sigh of his own. “Well, let’s go into the living room."

Once they had settled onto the couch and arm chair respectively, Elizabeth looked over at him and said straightforwardly, not wanting to drag this out any longer than she had to, “I’m calling off the engagement. I’m sorry, but I can’t go through with it.”

Her fiancé studied her carefully for several long seconds, before asking, “Is it Iain?”

Elizabeth gave a very small nod, not needing to actually say anything.

Her fiancé sighed resignedly. “I was always afraid this day would come. Iain has always been first in your life ever since I met you, and when we first started dating I thought for the longest time that it was just a matter of time before you went to him — guess in the end I was right. Is there any chance we can talk about this, or have you already made up your mind and you're just telling me?"

"Sorry," said Elizabeth softly, shaking her head just slightly.

Her fiancé nodded sadly, before saying, "Elizabeth, don’t expect me to be happy for you any time soon, or even happy with you. It hurts, and even more so that you _didn't_ talk to me about it at all, but I can’t say that I am that surprised. That it happened, or that you didn't talk to me about it. After all, I would have tried to convince you to stay, which you already knew. But I do have to know, how long have you known you were going to break up with me?”

"For sure, just a week," answered Elizabeth quietly. "But I was pretty sure two weeks before that, and I've been thinking about all this for three or four months now — since a month or so after we started shooting season seven."

"And I assume Iain already knows?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Since he's the one I'm breaking up with you for, and I've had to talk with him about this entire thing for the same reason, I had to tell him as soon as I'd made my decision. But the only other person who knows is Chloe, because I had to have someone to occasionally talk with about trying to figure out what to do, and then she could just see it on us the day after I told Iain — you know how Chloe is."

Her fiancé chuckled very, very lightly at this. "If anyone could just see it, it would definitely be her. And I don't even know her all that well."

"She certainly knows everything going on whether you want her to or not," replied Elizabeth with a slight smile of her own. There were several seconds of silence, and then she said, “You know, I honestly expected you to be more a little more surprised about all this, and definitely more mad or angry."

“Just because I'm not being vocal about it, doesn't mean I'm not upset," replied her fiancé. "But I know you Elizabeth, and I know that once you've made up your mind there's no changing it, and you've clearly already made your decision here. So getting angry or yelling or anything like that would just lead to a nasty fight, and you certainly wouldn't change your mind then, so there's nothing for me to gain and a lot to lose doing anything like that. And as for not being as surprised as it might seem like I should be, it had seemed like you’d been becoming more distant over the past few months, I'd just been hoping it was all in my head and not real. That it really was just a busy final season, and I was worrying too much over nothing. But as soon as you told me you were calling it off, it was obvious that I hadn't just been imagining it, so it wasn't really the surprise that it could have been." He paused for a few seconds before saying, "I do have to ask, though. Have you two already started dating?"

“What? No! Of course not!” cried Elizabeth. “I did everything I could not to cheat on you the entire time, I promise!"

"Everything you could?" asked her fiancé with a raised eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

"I _did_ have to figure out exactly what my feelings for Iain were and vice versa before I could make such a life-altering decision," answered Elizabeth slightly defensively. "But I promise we both tried as hard as we could not to do anything that could count as cheating. Now obviously, even just thinking about him in that way was some kind of at least emotional cheating on you, but the only physical thing we ever did that wasn’t something we’d always done before he ever realized he had feelings for me was in filming. You know as FitzSimmons that we have to kiss onscreen, and like I mentioned before filming started, they increased the FitzSimmons scenes this year. So since we already had to be kissing for our job, I told Iain to kiss me a little more seriously and intentionally than he had been as a way for me to get some idea of whether we really possibly had anything. But that was my idea, so don't blame Iain for that — I told him to make our scenes more realistic. But that is the only thing we did that could be considered cheating on you."

"Rewind a second — how exactly did all this get started in the first place? It seems like I'm missing something here," said her fiancé.

"Oh, sorry. I’m doing a terrible job explaining any of this, aren't I?" replied Elizabeth. "So early during filming, I noticed something off about Iain. He didn't want to tell me what it was, which was so unusual I couldn't ignore it, and I eventually drug out of him that he'd come to realize over the break that he romantically liked me. So that's when all this started."

“And that's when you realized you might also have had feelings for him? When he told you his feelings for you?”

“No,” answered Elizabeth quietly with a small shake of her head. “I’ve liked him for a long time, I just never thought he felt the same way back. Plus, I knew better than to try to start anything between us way back then, because we still had to continue working together for as many more years as the show continued, and one of the first rules of acting is to never get romantically involved with anyone you have to work with on a daily basis — because if things go badly, they go badly. And so over the years, I managed to bury those feelings deep inside me, and I thought I was able to move on. And I really was. If I’d never noticed anything odd about Iain, if I’d never drug his confession out of him, I really did love you. Still love you, just not as much as Iain. He was my first love, and now that I believe we really have an honest chance together, I can’t say no to that chance, even knowing it may not work out. And I really believe it will, but I know there are no guarantees."

Her fiancé leaned back against the couch, absorbing everything she'd told him. Eventually he said, "Maybe I'm just being a glutton for punishment here, and I don't know how it could help me feel any better about any of this, but are you willing to tell me the whole story of you picking Iain, or at least some of it. I know you won't be willing to tell me everything, and I don't expect that, you and Iain is your business now that we aren't engaged anymore, but if there's any chance I can support you two sooner rather than later, maybe hearing your side of it would help. Probably not, but I'd like to hear it anyway if you’re willing."

"Of course," replied Elizabeth.

Then she proceeded to tell him the whole story from when she'd first confronted Iain, giving him enough to understand what had happened, if certainly not every single detail. Both to keep her story from taking the entire rest of the afternoon, and to protect Iain as best she could and because it wasn’t entirely her story to tell in the first place. But she gave him enough of the story that he would know the basics of how and why she'd come to the decision to break off her engagement with him, and to try with Iain.

At the end, her now ex-fiancé said resignedly, “Like I said earlier, for the longest time I thought the day would come when you’d leave me for Iain. I had thought I'd escaped that once we became engaged, but looks like I was right all along. And I don't know if I'll ever really be able to be happy for you, as I do love you and wanted to spend the rest of my life with you after all, but I wish the two of you the best of luck. I'd much rather you two work out after all this than for you not to and know we could have."

They both sat there in silence for a while, before he asked, "So what are you going to do now? You said you two agreed not to start dating until it's been long enough after our breakup that the media won't have quite as much of a field day with it, but we can't both live in this apartment."

"You can stay here until we get everything divided up and sorted," answered Elizabeth. “Iain's visiting his parents for a week or so now that we've finished filming and he has a chance to see them again, and I already told him I'd try to stop by. We used to visit each other over breaks fairly regularly, so no one should think anything about it if they do see me there, plus no one knows we've broken up yet. He won't be expecting me this soon, but I can call his mum and make sure it's okay, and then get a flight up to Scotland this evening. Or if that doesn't work, I can go to my parents. I need to anyway, both just to see them again, and to tell them I'm no longer engaged."

"I was going to point out that you said you didn't want to be alone around him too much for a while to keep the press off," he replied, "but you are right in saying that you visit him a lot, and as there's apparently only four of us who know we've broken up or knew it was going to happen, I guess you should be safe enough."

"And _you_ , too," said Elizabeth. "You'll be in the spotlight as well when word does finally get out. Maybe not quite as much as Iain and I will be, but I don't want you to have to suffer any more than you have to at the hands of the press, either."

“It’s hard to be appreciative when this is the reason the press would be on me, but I sincerely do appreciate you trying to protect me from them. And I really do wish you the best of luck, even if I can't be the happiest for you or with you at the moment."


	10. Chapter 10

It was dark when Elizabeth walked up the path to Iain's parents' front door.

She rang the doorbell, and waited. A few seconds later she heard footsteps coming towards the door, and a second later it opened to present Iain.

"Lil!" he exclaimed. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes, yes, Iain, I'm fine," assured Elizabeth quickly, before he could become too worried.

But before she could say anything more, they heard Iain's mum call out from further in the house, "Let her in, dear! Don't leave her standing outside!"

Iain raised an eyebrow at Elizabeth as he stepped aside to let her in, and said, "Seems like someone knew you were coming tonight."

Elizabeth smiled sheepishly. "I had to make sure it would be okay for me to come stay a few days before I flew up here, but I wanted to surprise you. So, surprise — here I am!"

Iain quickly shut the door closed behind them before turning and hugging her tightly.

"And surprised and very happy to see you I am, for sure," replied Iain. "And speaking of surprised, I thought it was going to be a day or two before you came by."

"I did say that, but I always knew it might actually be tonight," answered Elizabeth. "I just didn't want to say anything since I didn't know how other things would go, and I could have always stayed with my parents until I could make it up here if need be."

"Oh, yeah — other things. Have you…?”

Iain trailed off, clearly unwilling to complete the rest of the question. Elizabeth rolled her eyes at him.

"Did I break up with my fiancé, you mean?" she completed slightly teasingly. "Yes — I am officially a free woman now."

Iain grinned brightly. "I know we said we were going to wait a while, but —"

Elizabeth didn't bother replying, instead grabbing his face and pulling him down for a searing kiss. Iain wrapped one hand around her back as the other tangled in her hair, as one of Elizabeth's hands slid around to grip the short hair on the back of his neck, the other sliding down to his shoulder.

They didn't break apart until they heard a teasing, "Well, you did at least let her inside."

They had completely missed the sound of Iain's mum's footsteps coming towards them, too absorbed exploring each other's lips.

Breaking apart, they both looked sheepishly at the mother De Caestecker, but she merely said, "Hi, Elizabeth, glad you made it safely. And don't worry about an old woman like me, though I do believe there are some details my son failed to enlighten me of."

"It's not his fault, Mrs De Caestecker," said Elizabeth quickly. "He didn't know anything for sure until I just told him right before I kissed him. But yes, I have broken it off with my now ex-fiancé. And as for Iain and I, we're technically not actually dating yet, but we have promised to start to soon and I just couldn't help but kiss him now that I can."

"Well don't let me stop you, I just wanted to say hi and make sure my son didn't make you stand out on the front porch as you two talked. And the guest bedroom is of course all made up like normal if you want it, but don't worry, neither myself nor my husband will say anything if you choose to sleep in a _different_ room."

" _Mum!_ " exclaimed Iain.

But Mrs De Caestecker merely laughed and said, "There's fresh cookies in kitchen dears," before heading out of the room and leaving Elizabeth and Iain alone again.

"Sorry about that," sighed Iain. "Mums, you know."

But Elizabeth rested her hand on his upper arm and said, "I think she's wonderful. Now what about those cookies?"

~AoS~

A few hours later, Iain's parents had bid them goodnight, and Iain and Elizabeth were sitting alone on the living room couch.

"Tomorrow I want to know how things went with your ex, but not tonight," Iain said after a while. "I'm too happy you're here to let anything mess that up tonight, and you've seemed to be in good spirits the whole time you've been here, so I assume it couldn't have been too bad or you would have been crying into my shoulder instead of kissing me. But it is getting late, which means we should eventually go to bed, which brings up that question."

Elizabeth yawned from where she was nestled into his side. "The question of whether I'm okay with sleeping in your bed, or if I'll be taking the guest bedroom like I always have when I've come to visit? That question?"

"Yeah."

"I do still want to hold off on dating, and not just when we're in public, because trying to date in secret would just be too hard to do and too much of a pain to try to keep public and private separated. But I also want to keep kissing you while we're here and away from any prying eyes," said Elizabeth. "So as long as you're okay with us having to stop for a while once I leave here, and certainly during the upcoming press and convention tour, I'm okay with being more personal while we're here, including me sleeping in your room — if you want me to, of course."

"I'll take anything I can get, and I'll make it through the convention season on the promise we'll start officially dating soon after that's over," answered Iain.

"Then your room it is," replied Elizabeth. "But no sex until we're officially dating, and maybe even wait a while then. I want to, believe me, I really do, but I want us to work out for real even more, and a relationship has to be built on something more important and solid than sex."

"Of course, of course!" exclaimed Iain. "I mean obviously I want it as well, but don't agree to it before you're ready just because you want to make me happy. Hopefully we'll have the rest of our lives for that."

Elizabeth nodded. "Then how about we head up to your room, and sleep in the same bed for the first time in our lives, since the only other time I've tried I was drunk and dating, so you made me sleep on your couch instead."

"Hey! I was going to let you have my bed and I sleep on the couch, but you would only take my bed if I was there too, and given you having a boyfriend at the time, I wasn't about to do that," defended Iain as he stood up and offered his hand to Elizabeth.

"I know, I know, I just wanted to tease you," smirked Elizabeth as she took his proffered hand, letting him pull her up. "But that's no longer a problem, and I'm not at all drunk tonight, so let's take advantage of what I know we've both wanted for months now.”


	11. Chapter 11

Four months later, Elizabeth was working on her computer in the office of the apartment she and Iain had moved into together a few weeks earlier, when her phone rang from her agent.

At the end of the season seven press tour, Elizabeth and Iain had decided that it had been long enough to officially start dating each other. After several weeks of interviews wanting to know where her fiancé was, if he’d be joining her on the press tour at all, whether or not they had a date picked out yet, and questions of the like, Elizabeth had finally admitted that she and her fiancé had broken up, that she just hadn’t wanted to talk about it and take away from the show they were supposed to be promoting. After that, she deflected all the questions that came her way as best she could, saying they had just realized they weren’t going to work out together, that it was still too soon for her to want to talk about it, and that the two of them were still on good terms.

But despite this, rumors still started floating around that she had broken up with him for Iain, even though the two of them hadn’t been spotted alone with each other the entire tour, always either being with everyone else from the cast or else in interviews together that they obviously hadn’t been the ones to set up. It was what they’d hoped to avoid for all three of their sakes, but the media was tenacious when they wanted to be, and had soon spread the rumor far and wide despite having zero evidence to support it whatsoever. But such was life in the spotlight, and Iain and Elizabeth brushed it off as best they could. After all, it wasn’t like it was the first time they’d ever been rumored to be together, only this time it happened to actually almost be true.

On the last night of the press tour, the entire cast went out to eat supper together. They were waiting on their food to arrive when Chloe leaned over to them and asked quietly, “So now that everything’s over, you two going to start dating for real?”

Elizabeth looked over at Iain sitting next to her for a second, before nodding and smiling shyly. “We have an apartment picked out and everything. We decided that we’ve known each other so long, and I stayed with him at his parents’ house for about a week right after filming, that even though we’ve never officially dated before, and have had to keep even more space between us than normal on this tour, we’re going to move straight in together.”

“But it’s away from all the normal paparazzi hotspots, and isn’t near where either of us lived before, so we’re going to try to still keep it quiet for a while. It is still very soon after she told everyone she was no longer engaged and all the rumors started that she broke up for me. So we’re hoping to avoid any further press until we’ve been together for a while, and then we can announce us as a well established couple,” added Iain. “Probably wishful thinking, but it’s been three months, and we’re tired of waiting.”

“Also, it’s two weeks before we actually move in there, and we’re both going to visit our parents most of that time and won’t see each other again until we do move in, which we’ve planned to be a few days apart, so maybe most people will have moved on to more juicy gossip by the time we’re actually seen together again,” finished Elizabeth.

“Well best of luck, and if you’re moving in first Lil, I’ll be happy to come help move if I’m available, and maybe throw anyone off track if they see you but also see me with you before Iain’s there.”

But that was over a month ago, and they were now comfortably and happily settled into their new apartment together, and Elizabeth picked up her phone to see what her agent had for her.

Her agent quickly got to the point, saying, "We're in discussions with a studio to pick up an eighth season of Shield. I obviously can't give you any details on the plot, but you know, typical extinction level event and FitzSimmons and recently born daughter having to go back to Zephyr One and the field from their Perthshire SHIELD secret lab sabbatical and raising a family and all that. But the executives of the studio have heard of the rumors of you breaking up with your fiancé because of Iain, and just want to make sure you and Iain can still work together before they continue discussions about whether or not they really want to pick it up, and what the plot would have to look like with one or both of you gone. So can you two still work together?"

"Hold on one second," replied Elizabeth. She then turned and shouted back through the apartment, "Hey, Iain! Are we still on good enough terms to play FitzSimmons again?"

Iain rounded the corner and stuck his head in the room, looking at her in confusion.

Elizabeth just smiled at him and gave him a thumbs up before saying into the phone, "Iain says yes. Well, technically he's staring at me completely confused, but his answer would be yes if he had any clue what I was asking him. So absolutely, we can work together."

~AoS~

"What did you just volunteer us for?" asked Iain as soon as she hung up.

"We may be getting a season eight, but the execs wanted to make sure with all the rumors floating around over my breakup and you possibly being the cause of it, that you and I were still on good enough terms to play FitzSimmons again."

"But we're dating — how could we not be okay?" asked Iain in confusion.

"Because we haven't told anyone we don't personally know that we are dating, and we haven't done any events together, so it hasn't made it to the news yet," explained Elizabeth patiently. "We may have moved in together a couple weeks ago when we officially started dating, but the execs who need to make sure another season could actually happen from an actor standpoint don't know any of that."

"Oh. Okay, that makes sense," said Iain. "And really, a season eight? That would be awesome. We won't have to look for jobs for another year."

"And here I was thinking the best part would be the fact we'd be together while filming for another season," teased Elizabeth.

"Well yeah, obviously!" exclaimed Iain. "Of course I'm glad to get to work with you again! But it's also nice not to have to find something new to do, too, is all I was saying.”

"Fair enough, fair enough," relented Elizabeth, standing up to walk over to her boyfriend and wrap her arms around him, before leaning up to give him a quick kiss. "Hopefully it'll happen. The plot my agent couldn't tell me about sounded good."

Iain bent down to give her a deeper kiss. “I’m sure it did — they haven’t failed us yet. And I’ll be on the lookout for a call from my agent about this, as I assume he’ll need to check with me to make sure I’m okay with still working with you, as well.”

“I hope you’ll say yes,” teased Elizabeth, reaching up and ruffling his hair.

“I don’t know — might be a hard sell,” teased back Iain, grabbing her hand and holding it tightly between them, before asking, “Think if we announce we’re dating, they’ll give us even more scenes?”

“If the plot stays the same as my agent said, we’re already going to be married with a daughter,” answered Elizabeth with a roll of her eyes. “How much more romantic can FitzSimmons get?”

“Or they’ll try to cut out all our romantic parts and go purely family,” countered Iain. “You know how shows sometimes do."

Elizabeth sighed, though she knew her boyfriend wasn’t wrong. “Then you can tell your agent to tell them we’re dating and want more romantic scenes if you like."

* * *

Filming had just wrapped on season eight, when Chloe walked over and held Elizabeth back a second on set.

Elizabeth didn’t think anything about it until Iain, who’d walked off set after the director had yelled “Wrap!” and last she saw was talking to Clark just off set, came walking back towards them with a determined look on his face. But when she reflexively looked back over at Chloe, she found that the younger girl had somehow slipped away and it was just her and Iain.

“What is it?” she asked hesitantly, looking around them to find that it seemed like everyone else had vanished into thin air, really leaving them all alone.

“I asked them all to give us minute,” answered Iain, still looking very serious. Taking a deep breath, he continued, “I thought about trying to do this somehow like Fitz did, but in the ended I decided it would be too impersonal.”

“Iain, what on earth are you talking about?”

“Lil, I know this is sooner than normal, but I don’t want to wait any longer. I love you, and after eight years of being together, first as friends and costars, and now dating for most of the past year, I don’t want to spend another day without you. So Elizabeth Henstridge, will you marry me?”

He bent down on one knee, holding out a small, ornate jewelry box with a silver ring in it that he’d had hidden behind his back since he’d walked over.

Elizabeth gasped and stared at him in shock, before a second later squeaking out, “Yes! Yes, Iain, yes, of course! Of course I will!”

She fell to her knees to hug him, which Iain readily returned, before after several minutes pushing her back enough that he could take the ring out of its box and hold it up to her, reminding her that he had it and still needed to put it on her finger. Elizabeth blushed slightly, having completely forgotten about the ring, holding out her hand. Then she blushed a little deeper as they both looked down at her ring finger and saw Simmons’ wedding ring still there, since they’d just finished filming. Elizabeth hurriedly pulled it off and moved it over to her right hand ring finger, before holding her left hand back out for Iain to slide the real ring on. Once he had, Iain stood back up still holding on to her hand, pulling her up after him.

As soon as they were standing, Elizabeth threw her arms around his neck and kissed him soundly. Eventually they broke apart, and Iain said, “We should probably head towards the break room. Chloe will be starting to get worried it didn’t go well if we don’t turn up soon."

“So that’s why she held me back, and I assume Clark was holding the ring for you,” said Elizabeth as they walked hand in hand towards the break room, piecing together everything she’d seen but not really been paying attention to before he’d walked back up. “And why everyone disappeared."

Iain nodded. “I didn’t want you to have to have the pressure of an audience, especially since we haven’t been dating as long as most people do before I proposed.”

“We’ve been dating long enough, and this is why we started dating — I think it was perfect, Iain,” replied Elizabeth.


	12. Chapter 12

Ten years later, the cast of Agents of Shield were all gathering at Iain and Elizabeth’s Perthshire cottage for a long overdue reunion.

The show had ended for real several years before, and this was the first time they’d all managed to be in the same place together since then. They’d all seen each other off and on over those years, but they’d never managed to successfully arrange a complete reunion with everyone until now.

As Chloe walked up the drive to the front door, she thought Iain and Elizabeth had been just a little misleading in calling their house a ‘cottage’, though she did suppose it was smaller than the numerous castles she’d driven past on her way there. Opening the front door, she greeted several of her former costars who were milling about just inside, before finally spotting Elizabeth in the kitchen/dining room area setting out drinks.

“Looks like you and Iain have a nice life going here,” she greeted as she walked up. “Glad things worked out so well.”

“Forcing Iain to admit what was bothering him was the best decision I ever made,” answered Elizabeth with a bright smile as she hugged the younger woman tightly, before quickly adding, “Along with actually choosing him, of course. But how are you since we last talked, like a week ago?”

Elizabeth and Chloe chatted and caught up with each other, until Chloe eventually asked, “And how are the kids?”

“They’re great,” replied Elizabeth. “And currently out running around in the backyard while Iain’s grilling. Clark’s out there, too, helping him — with the grill, that is, probably not so much with the kids. They’re probably still running around uncontrollably like they have been all day. I made them go outside with Iain when he went out to start cooking because they were tearing up the house so much. They will be really happy to see their Aunt Chloe again, though.”

“And speaking of the hubby….”

“Same old Iain — couldn’t ask for a better husband or father to our kids,” said Elizabeth with a soft smile.

“I knew you’d make the right decision.”

At that moment, they were interrupted by the sound of high-pitched squealing from the direction of the patio doors leading out into the backyard, followed by a blur and kids suddenly crashing into Chloe’s legs, hugging her tightly. Chloe immediately knelt down to their level to hug them, not having seen them in far too long.

“Hey, love,” greeted Iain as he walked up in their kids’ wake, bending down to give Elizabeth a quick peck on the lips.

When Chloe had stood back up after saying hi to the kids, Iain gave her a hug as he said, “Hi, Chloe. Good to see you again.” Nodding down at the kids, he added, “And they’ve been rather excited to see you again, too.”

“Surely not,” teased Chloe, ruffling the kids’ hair as she looked down at them fondly. “Never would have guessed.” Addressing the kids directly, she said, “How about you show Aunt Chloe the backyard, before mummy and daddy kick all of us out of the house?”

As the kids drug her towards the patio doors and outside, Chloe threw over her shoulder at Elizabeth, “Good to catch up with you again, Lil!”

Once they’d disappeared into the backyard, Elizabeth turned and hugged Iain around the waist, resting her cheek against his chest.

Iain rested his chin lightly on the top of her head hugging her back, before after a while asking, “Care to tell me what’s going through that brilliant mind of yours?”

Elizabeth gave a light sigh.

“I’ve been thinking all afternoon how happy I am that all our friends are finally all back together again, and then talking with Chloe reminded me of how all of this was possible in the first place — how you and I became possible.”

She leaned back slightly so she could look up at him.

“I love you.”

Iain dipped his head down to give her a long, slow kiss, before pulling back just enough to look her in the eyes.

“I love you, too, Lil.”


End file.
